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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581630">First Date</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshi_Nama/pseuds/Toshi_Nama'>Toshi_Nama</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Dragon Age - All Media Types</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Favors, Free Help, M/M, Oh no he's sexy, Smuggling</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-11-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 22:16:22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>689</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27581630</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Toshi_Nama/pseuds/Toshi_Nama</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>It was a date, right? Sure it was. Even if there wasn't any food. Or kisses. There was moonlight and a smile, and that counted, right?</p><p>Sure it did.</p><p>Maybe.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anso/Fenris</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>4</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>2020 A Paragon of Their Kind Dragon Age Dwarf Exchange</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>First Date</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cryptographic_Delurk/gifts">Cryptographic_Delurk</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <span>He shouldn’t have agreed to help the elf. Especially for free, yet here he was lying his ass off to one of Meeran’s better bonebreakers and friends he’d rather not make unfriendly. “Look, it’s just...a smuggling deal. Lyrium,” he pleaded.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He was a dwarf. They should believe it, right?</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Ah, shit, who was he kidding? He, Anso Crackaw, was a </span>
  <em>
    <span>potter. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He knew enough about lyrium to say it was blue. But the rest? Smuggling and the Chantry? He knew nothing at all.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Ah, Stone,” he muttered in prayer. He knew exactly why he’d done it. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Someone </span>
  </em>
  <span>had thought he was somebody, or could be. The fact that someone had gorgeous eyes and a voice he could die for and be happy...well. It’s entirely possible he’d just made that decision. That Hawke meant business, and he didn’t think the dwarf bought his story. Blast, but to see that face smile ever so slightly? Yeah, it’d been worth it.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He watched them go, then watched the armed men start circling. Anyone in Low Town knew when trouble was on the way - well, anyone still alive. And since he’d not avoided the first Trouble, and looked for the second…</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“So, this Hawke believed you? Do you think he’s skilled enough?”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anso jumped at the voice, and his heart stayed in his throat. “Yes?” He cleared it and tried again. “Yes, I do. He ran with Merran for a year, him and his brother. They went right where you said. And...so did…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The man - the elf - nodded, his white tattoos almost glowing in the moonlight. “Don’t worry, I promise they will not come after you.” The words were said with a casual finality, one that would be frightening if it wasn’t so blasted </span>
  <em>
    <span>sexy. </span>
  </em>
  <span>“I guarantee it.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Good. Good…”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The elf looked at him again. “You’ve done a favor for me, and not asked for payment.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He closed his eyes and swallowed, but his throat was still dry. It wasn’t the risk, much as he wanted to claim it was. Then he looked around the somewhat shoddy streets of his district, familiar as the back of his hand or the dankmusk rising in thin streams from the sewers. “No, I haven’t.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Name it and if I have it, it’s yours.”</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Name it. </span>
  </em>
  <span>Then he looked into the elf’s eyes and saw the cynical walls that shuttered them. This elf was used to being asked for more that he was willing to give, and he’d still made the offer. Whatever this was, it mattered that much.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Oh, no. So did the Hawke down about to get ambushed. There wasn’t time for his dithering!</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“Your name, if that’s alright with you. And...well, you know where my shop is, if you ever wanted to get together for lunch or something, but that’s not a favor, that’s just an...offer. Open offer.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The elf studied him again, then Anso got to watch his face relax into something that could, under the right circumstances, turn into a smile.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Had he just asked this tall, muscular, </span>
  <em>
    <span>dangerous </span>
  </em>
  <span>elf out to dinner without even knowing his name? Knowing only that said elf </span>
  <em>
    <span>was </span>
  </em>
  <span>dangerous and had gotten him to agree to something that was probably going to get him killed? He shifted in front of the broken-down wagon covered in boxes of ‘goods’ that would be dropped right back into the harbor as soon as he could leave tonight.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“If you don’t want to, that’s alright, too.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>The elf raised a hand, and he cut himself off.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>“My name is Fenris.”</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he turned and stalked after the thugs, the prey turned predator.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>Anso swallowed. Fenris. </span>
  <em>
    <span>Fenris. </span>
  </em>
  <span>He liked the name.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He </span>
  <em>
    <span>really </span>
  </em>
  <span>liked the man.</span>
</p><p>
  <span>He swallowed again and knew he wasn’t going to move his wagon until he’d seen that Fenris had made it out. Even if he couldn’t do much, he could still do </span>
  <em>
    <span>something. </span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Then he wondered what it would look like if the man smiled for real, and felt the burning in his gut that wasn’t going to go away like it should.</span>
</p><p>
  <em>
    <span>Fenris.</span>
  </em>
</p><p>
  <span>Anso smiled. He liked the name.</span>
</p>
  </div></div>
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